158 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
The 11th being Sunday, divine service was performed, and in 
the afternoon the crew were allowed to take a walk, during 
which they saw a fox, the first of which had been seen in the 
country. They had directed their course to the southward, 
fancying that they should feel less from the severity of the wind, 
and their expectations were realised as long as they proceeded 
on their walk, but on their return to the ship, the wind came on 
to blow sharply from the N. N.W., accompanied by drifting snow, 
which actually prevented them from seeing many yards before 
them, and it was not without some difficulty that they could find 
their way back to the ship. 
The greater part of the 12th was employed in removing the 
powder out of the ship, and stowing it away on shore. Two 
seals were seen on the ice, and Capt. Ross and Commander Ross 
went to try to shoot them, but before they had got within shot, 
they had dived into their holes. An account of the provisions 
was this day taken, and it was found to the satisfaction of the 
crew, that they had thirty months provisions on board, and about 
18 chaldrons of coke and coal. The small quantity of the latter 
was rather calculated to excite some apprehension, at all events 
it was well for them, that they could not foresee the protracted 
length of their residence, in the inhospitable regions in which 
they then were, or the greatest alarm would have been raised 
in regard to their future comfort and subsistence. There was 
one circumstance attendant on this paucity of fuel, which was 
that the certainty existed that no further use could he made of 
the steam engine, for even if an opportunity offered itself on the 
homeward voyage, or in the prosecution of their discoveries, of 
employing it to any advantage, they would be obliged to relin¬ 
quish it from a total want of fuel; the folly therefore of having 
encumbered the ship with such a useless appendage became every 
day more apparent, and it became at last proverbial amongst the 
crew, when speaking of a useless object, to compare it with their 
steam engine. 
This evening the aurora borealis shone with uncommon splen¬ 
dour, appearing in broad masses, and breaking suddenly into 
columns and streamers, filling the whole hemisphere. 
